This weekend, three competitions in particular took centre stage: the traditional ‘Competition of Champions’ in front of the castle in Münster, and the two CSI5* events in Valkenswaard in the Netherlands and Brussels in Belgium.
In Brussels today, it was the day of Harrie Smolders (NED) and Uricas van de Kattevennen by Urico-Cassini I (Otto Boje Schoof, Hedwigenkoog). In the Grand Prix at 1.60-metre level, the pair finished in third place, earning 75,000 euros.
At Jan Tops’ equestrian centre, two horses with Holsteiner pedigrees placed in the 1.60-metre show jumping competition. One was Elysium by Zirocco Blue-Coronado (Manfred Tummes, Mühlheim a.d. Ruhr), line 4539, ridden by “Hansi” Dreher, who finished sixth; the other was Charley by Calido I-Askari (Ronald Nowee, NED-Oude Niedorp), line 275, in ninth place. It is also worth taking a look at the results lists for the young horse classes, as several promising young show jumpers enjoyed success there. Diarmuid Howley, a rider at Manfred von Allwörden’s stables, won with the eight-year-old Uriga VA by Uriko-Clarimo, line 8805, and came third in this competition on the licensed Forino by For Pleasure-Caretino, line 776, to third place in this competition.
In Münster, too, it was young horses that caught the eye. Whilst Sophie Hinners’ seven-year-old Livello-Cento daughter Honey Bunny (Otto Boje Schoof, Hedwigenkoog), line 238, to second place, and Annelies Vorsselmann (BEL) rode Ubrisco by Uriko-Chin Champ (Martina Bruno, SUI-Aesch), line 741, to second and fourth place respectively, the nine-year-old Chaka Chaka by Casall-Contender (Dan Lehmann, SUI-Seengen), ridden by Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann, took a very creditable third place in Saturday’s 1.50-metre Middle Tour show jumping competition.
Photo: Uricas van de Kattevennen (c)Sportfoto Lafrentz
